‘Names – they hold great portance.’
-Princess Luna, unknown.
Luna did not immediately awake back into the material world.
She kept gazing at the stretching void in front of her, waiting for something to happen. For any sign of a faint rekindling. For a dream to be formed once more. Others did; Luna keenly sensed them. They hovered around her, passing her by and demanding attention. More sprung up, emerging from the dark waters that made up the floor of the Realm Luna sat upon. Her field of view became gradually filled and the unwavering ting ting ting of a bell rang ever louder. Luna dismissed them all; there was no time for the petty problems of mortal creatures. One disc, however, shined brighter than others and kept form where others dissipated.
Urgency. Nothing she wanted to care about; it fell to the fate of its kin.
The world had to wait. She could not care less for it.
Eufremia was dead…
‘…Nothing will happen,’ she cursed in a loud murmur and defeated. ‘Nothing will change it. Her life… has… you would know.’
The figure of a stallion stood quietly behind her. He looked younger than Eufremia.
‘Right, Orion?’
He did not answer. She did not want him to.
‘I think you do, Moonshine. I was the one that had killed you, after all.’
No reply.
She sighed and lounged on the mirror-like ground. ‘She was the first… In a long time to... Have I told you that?’
‘I think I have. I can’t remember.’
‘Right – she had not met you. I was almost going to ask why. Well, maybe later she- Eufremia is dead… right. You will never meet her. Maybe for the best.’
‘Anyways – she is yet another one to add to the list. Yet another… It is a long list.’
Luna stood up and approached the apparition of Orion. He had been her trusted captain once. Perhaps the first true friend she had allowed herself to have after they rose to head Equestria. They were close, and for all their closeness, she was his killer. It had taken one mistake. One hastened plan. One allowance for eagerness. All had led for him to perish in the fires of her error; for everyone that followed their new ruler to die. It had taken only that one mistake a many cycles ago to set the course her life would take.
She stood taller than him, similar as she did in the long past. His hair had been whitening, but his eyes had retained the vivacity of youth behind the first signs of wrinkles – she made sure to preserve those features. She could have recreated his voice, but it would have been more akin to talking to herself. It is preferable to not let madness take hold of her this fast. ‘She said I appeared older. Maybe the list will have an end one day. Who knows? She also said I was tired. Maybe, after all, it is not aging.’
‘Celestia… No – she would not say a thing. She will lie in hope to protect me. I will object. She will come back with an argument. And I will trust her words. Eufi would have said it straight to my face…’
‘And I still can’t contact Cornelia… The spell would not weaken! There is no sign of it happening! What did I do, Moonshine?! What is the reason I complicate everything for myself! Why has my life been such a cavalcade when Celestia has it so simple! Why, Moonshine! Why!’ They were no questions.
Luna made the tears’ call deaf to her. She should not reminisce about what was, in the great scheme of things, a just a faint occurrence in her life. She should stop caring about Eufremia – she should stop caring for all creatures. She was harming herself by hearing and answering their plights.
It was wrong. It was wrong to abandon those that are… lesser. She had the power. She had the means to protect and defend them – someone had to perform the difficult. Celestia was doing nothing to alleviate her problems. Her sister, everyone, was doing nothing to alleviate her toil. She was more powerful. She could do it.
She was tired. Eufremia was right.
‘Should I,’ she whispered lost words, ‘make her like- No!’ Her scream bellowed in an impossible echo through a realm devoid of boundaries. ‘It had been her time,’ she said like out of a mouth filled of grovel. ‘It was- But it wasn’t yours! That is the difference, Moonshine!’
No answer. And that time, it would be absolute as she sliced his lower jaw and entire right side with an ebon claw, leaving a gash of clear blue light that she did not heal as a great pain promptly took hold of her.
Luna’s body was paralyzed. A sense of mounting failure and regret enveloped her. She had let herself go loose. Again, like for Orion and Eufremia, she had permitted emotions to control her. She was weak.
The pain grew more intense like a knife repeatedly gutting her. Luna’s eyes began to water, terrified to close them as she saw their colors shift to pale blue.
It was returning. Her nightmare was returning to conquer her. Luna tried to wake herself, but a sudden all-encompassing throb that felt too real for a simple dream, grasped her in a tight claw.
The wounded Orion Moonshine disappeared.
Unleashed.
Then her figure elongated and stretched; her height increased to surpass Celestia’s own. Her skin changed to a darker blue resembling one of true dark. Then suddenly, her mane conflagrated in incandescent blue, extending in a silent cacophony to the point it could have filled the infinite expanse of her dimension.
She then spoke in a voice that wasn’t quite Luna’s own.
‘It is her fault,’ the existence hissed – she had not known her name yet. The thing now standing in Luna’s stead took time to get used to her voice. She loved mesmerizing and indulging in it, better not that sound be left foreign to her ears. ‘She was too weak to let the girl get close to her. She is weak and keeps herself in the shadows. However, soon, under the pale moonlight, a new Sun will rise, and I will be-’
A name blazed into the endless sky in a trail fire of magnetic blue, etching itself with cold flames into her soul. A name that would come to be associated with horror incarnate and the hidden bane of many thousands. It was a simple name – a very explicit one – and she liked that name.
‘Nightmare Moon.’
Luna woke up, the lifeless body of her confidant still next to her, its eyes open wide since the moment of death.
Luna covered Eufremia’s face, Luna’s visage showing no hint of derangement. It was done many times before. You get… used to it. Then, she exited the room she would later seal and preserve for eternity.
‘Princess,’ saluted one of the guards standing in the corridor. She did not remember his name.
‘Eufremia is dead.’ She had forced the words out, holding back the want to check again if it was still true. She had not the strength to do so. ‘Prepare the burial ground.’
‘We obey.’
It was still day, the Sun illuminating the corridors and rooms of Luna’s palace, not letting and shadow peer itself onto its walls, but what walked next to the guard had more the allure of a limping ghost than the Alicorn she had tasked to guard her. She had not asked for aid, she had just demanded to be left alone, and they obeyed. She had just to go get her crown, then she could begin a new, uneventful, empty day.
As she had done less than a century back. As she had done since as long as she could remember.
Unleashed!
We are less than three decades before Midnight.